What’s up family!
Man, I have so much to say right now. Really, I have 2 weeks of stories to tell. I’ll get right to it.
First of all, I made a couple comments on our phone call and some other letters about how I was planning on making a fire. Two weeks ago, "Project: FOREST FIRE" got the green light and was ready to go. I scrambled around in the tall grass behind our apartment, got super muddy and dirty, and cleared an area for a fire, got a bunch of rocks and made a ring, and found a bunch of dead trees that our neighbor threw out, and using my bare hands, TURNED THOSE TREES INTO KINDLING. That’s what being human is: turning the raw, wild earth around you into sustenance. Luckily, I had a division planned with Elder Barker the next day, so "P:FF" was delayed by 24 hours. In order to do our division, I had to travel, by bus, for 7 HOURS in the morning (Lagoa Vermelha is 2 and ½ hours away from Passo Fundo, Marau is 1 hour away from Passo Fundo, I did the round trip).
So after just rumbling along in the bus all day, Elder Barker and I got home at 3:00. Then our lunch meeting fell through. So we went to the store, brought food back, cooked the food, ate the food, hit the streets at 5:00, made 2 appointments, returned home to our little slice of scoutery. "Project: Forest Fire" was a go, and Elder Barker and I danced around the fire like crazy injuns. Awesome. And THAT’S how you do it.
Into the Hills http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xQesOHq5d0
We had a baptism two Saturdays ago, but it was a member’s kid so I don’t have pictures. What I do have is two legs of bug bites because Elder Carvalho and I had the pleasure of setting up the pool for the baptism, in a little lot of grass behind the church that seemed like a lost part of Nauvoo before the brethren drained the swamps and got rid of the mosquitos. The mosquitos here don’t sip your blood, they BITE chunks out of you. You bleed for a second after they bite you. Crazy. It wasn’t that bad, but at the moment I was going crazy.
After making a baptismal font out of the swamp, we helped out setting up the party, had a very nice baptism, and then ate and had a talent show. The star of the show? I’ll give you one guess. Because the Ward Mission Leader’s son only knows how to play that song from Titanic, I ended up practicing the lyrics and got ready to sing it in front of the branch. Everybody was blown away at my prowess and charm. Just check out the video. Awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlGBht3QFeY
The next day, we sailed off super early (by bus) to Vila Maria, a nearby city where the 1st counselor lives. They treated us to a huge churrasco, and a generally awesome day at the ranch they have there. The city is incredibly small, but they have this HUGE gym (galpao) where the whole place gets together. An entire wing of the building is just for making churrasco. Galpao Tour http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU-OhxHpf18
We had a huge party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-YhKOASqCk
Okay, I gotta go! More stories later! Love you guys so much! Wish I didn’t have to be so brief! We are going to go take a tour of a Masonic temple! It’ll be sweet!
Love you! Thanks so much for the sweet letters and pictures! More later! Tchau tchau!
Love love and more love!
Elder Con
...a little while later...
Hey, I’m still here! The member gave us a quick tour and dropped us back at the Lanhouse. I thought it’d be a bit longer. Great! I can say more.
The other day after church we decided to find a shortcut home. Usually we go in a big U shape to get home, because in the middle of that U is a lot of undeveloped land and a huge hill. We found one. Suddenly we were traipsing through old farm fields on the top of the hill so you could see the whole city below, but felt utterly alone because of the silence and all the trees around us. We jumped a couple fences, picked our way through the trees and brambles, and stumbled onto an abandoned construction site where they were building a neighborhood but, (we guess) finances ran short. Then, a little further, in the trees, was a huge radio tower all fences off with a bunch of machines whirring inside. We approached the tower and heard a bunch of beeping and humming noises. All in this quiet hillside forest. This is to Brendon: it felt EXACTLY like I was in Half Life 2: Ep. 2. Same climate, same foliage, abandoned buildings, weird noisy technology, and all utterly empty. Very cool. Too bad my camera battery ran out. Not that that would give the experience any justice. We continued, and found a dirt road that lead exactly to right in front of our house. So now that’s how we’re getting to church every Sunday.
After that day, we decided to boil some water, prep some chimarrao, grab my ipod and some portable speakers, some snacks, and we took off for the top of the mountain. We found this cliff that overlooks a big chunk of the city. MAN it was cold. I was wearing 5 layers, pajamas under my jeans, 2 socks. But it was a completely crisp night. Man, we could see the stars perfectly. Marau is a small town and it’s in the middle of complete farmland for miles, so there wasn’t a lot of light getting in the way. We were pretty tired after a hard week, and it was a great way to relax. Tomorrow I’ll have a division with a good friend, Elder Chagas, and I’m going to pack a bunch of wood to make a campfire up there. Hope the weather gets good. It’s a bit foggy now. But we’re going to combine "Project: Forest Fire" and "Project: Mountain Pass" together for an amazing finale. It’ll be great.
Notice that I don’t talk about the work very often? We’re tired here. The other day we went knocking on doors for 2 hours and found 3 lukewarm potential investigators. Most of the time it’s “No, we’re Catholic.” Okay. But one success we had here was that a less-active family, who had moved here recently, went to church two Sundays, and stopped coming suddenly, opened up to us after giving a scripture message, and told us why they weren’t going to church. It was because of a comment another member made. So we talked with them for like the whole night, and managed to resolve the problem, and they said they’d come back to church. We’ll work with them to make a goal for going to the temple.
That’s how it is out here. We have few families who will go to church every Sunday no matter what; we have a bunch of families where it’s a balancing act to see if they’ll keep coming to church. So we count our successes where we can. Hopefully by coming to church they’ll be able to form their own testimonies and experiences enough to overcome the other obstacles they have in their lives.
But, we’re going. Elder Carvalho and I have a disdagreement once or twice a week, but we quickly forget what happened and come back together again. I don’t know what the problem is, but it revolves around our habits of cleanliness. It’s easy to say, “Ah, Elder Carpenter, just do what he says and clean.” But that is a lot harder of a thing to do than you’d expect. I don’t know if I’m capable of that. But I try. And we’re going.
Made another monster map of Marau. It’s expensive and time consuming, but I want to do it for every area I pass through. Just leave a bit of Elder Carpenter everywhere. It turned it really cool. I’ll take a photo.
Mom, got your package! Loved it so much. The poptart and the chocolates went fast. The pasta is waiting for me at home. The pasta was awesome, but without you feeling bad about anything (I hope), the chocolate is way better. Even the cheap kinds are worth it. The same type of pasta is very accessible in stores here. Don’t worry! The food isn’t even the best part, it’s the letters and the cool poster you sent and all your love.
I loved hearing news about the business! So awesome! Congrats guys! You guys deserve what’s happening right now! Just lets keep praying to keep it going right. And remember that whatever happens, what’s more important is our family and the gospel. If we hesitate to remember that we already have the biggest success in our lives (our family), stuff might get sticky. I love you guys. I’m praying it all goes through well. How cool it is to be where we are now! Our prayers really have been answered. So awesome.
Kaitlin! It’s almost summer! And your birthday! I am so excited. I’ll make a cake here like you made for me there. Your last day of middle school! You’re getting so old! I love you Kate!
Lyns, you lucky! Send some pictures! You made it through the school year!!! So awesome. Summer finally came. Love you so much! EFs Forever!
Okay, sooo… I love you guys! Have a good week! Thank you again so much for the letters, my sweet sistas, Lyns and Kate. You guys are awesome.
Lovedy love.
Con
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